Hurricane Ike Update

The hurricane blew through Friday night/Saturday morning. We still don't have power like 1.4 million other Houstonians. Thankfully the weather has been beautifully cooperative and open windows have replaced air conditioning. Daycare is closed indefinately. Work has power, but it also has damage to my area - the mold and mildew are overpowering. Thank goodness for wireless internet, giant lab space, and finally some storm coverage. Until this morning I didn't even know where exactly the storm went (turns out we were in the eye of the storm here and didn't even know it). The boys are enjoying playing on their mats in the lab floor and a constant stream of visitors.

My boss has been by twice eyeing us all skeptically and sent out a tacky message about her taking vacation to stay at home with the kids until her school district reopened hopefully on Monday. Unlike us, she has had power since Sunday afternoon. Along with internet service and could in theory work from home. Honestly I don't think work should be open at all - unless as a refuge for those without power to come in, enjoy a/c, tv coverage, cold drinks, and refrigerators with power. The skeleton crew I have seen in this morning are few and far between, and only two of the 50 or so to come through has power at their home. Some are still without water.

I am not sure if it is good news or bad, but Centerpoint is reporting outages by zip code - mine has been in the top 3 since the beginning. Originally with 29000 without power. Down to 20000 as of this morning. Parts of our neighborhood came back online yesterday so hopefully there is still hope for us in the near future. And hopefully leading the pack will also get us more than our share of those tree trimming and line trucks I have seen driving around the neighborhood. It's a shame that the boys aren't older to be able to help me spot license plates - we have seen Florida, Alabama, Michigan (Thanks for pulling all those pine trees off the lines by the power substation yesteryday!), Tenessee, and a yellow one I couldn't make out.

The boys are tolerating the change pretty well. They are fascinated with the candles flickering throughout the house out of their reach. They love the lazy days in nothing but diapers. I may have a hard time trying to get them back in clothes. And thank god for the toys that required 7000 batteries, because without power they are still going.

Stores are beginning to reopen in the area, some on generators, and others as power is restored. Gas lines are insane. Hundreds of cars, and hours worth of wait. Luckily all of our vehicles had full tanks of gas and we have been out only sparingly since the storm. We had our first real meal in days yesterday - an totally age inappropriate upscale steak house. The hostess looked at us hauling in the car seats skeptically, but seated us anyway. Thankfully B played quietly in his car seat for over an hour while we ate. A wasn't quite as well behaved, but only screamed once for a few seconds before being taking out of his seat and held for the remainder of the meal which apparently was all he wanted as he smiled and looked around happily thereafter.

Well, off to do some real work. Hopefully others in the area fared as well, if not better.

 

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear that you are ok and making the best of a bad situation. I hope your power is restored soon.

 

Sounds like you guys are hanging in there and in fairly good spirits! Glad to hear you are all okay and I really hope your power is back on soon!

 

Beemer-

I completely understand what you are going through! I'm still without power- and with 4 month olds! I don't know what I was thinking trying to ride out a hurricance with two little ones.

Fortunately, I'm staying with my parents who have power. But paitience is running out fast. Let's both cross our fingers and hope for power soon! Good luck!

 

I hope you get power back soon :hug:.

 

So happy to hear all is okay and hopefully returning back to normal soon. Hope the steak was good

April

 

Glad you guys are all safe!!!!


Dianna

 

I'm glad it's not been too difficult for your babies. I hope you get power back soon, that's the pits!

 

My power just came back on today after nearly 5 days.

 

Almost 5 days to the hour - WE HAVE POWER!!!! YEA!!! :yahoo: